Australian Targets

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Okay, climate change is now getting serious with global warming set to impact on the enjoyment of a nice strong cup of Assam tea or a good brew of Columbian coffee. Already the subtle flavors of Assam tea are starting to change. For the tea and coffee connoisseurs in the developed world we might find the price increasing on that skinny latte or cup of tea.

While we might bemoan tea or coffee price rises from the comfort of our street cafes and comfortable dwellings, the real hardship will be felt by the thousands of small growers in the developing world who are dependent on tea or coffee as a major cash crop and boost to their local economies facing the problems of increasing temperatures and changing rainfall patterns.

The 16th Conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or better known as COP16, was held in Cancun Mexico from November 29th to December 10th. A Last minute agreement based on the Copenhagen accord resulted over the objections of one country - Bolivia.

Caption: Long-term change in annual mean surface temperature anomalies over the globe. The bars indicate anomalies of surface temperature in each year. The blue line indicates five-year running mean, and the red line indicates a long-term linear trend. Anomalies are deviations from the normal (1971-2000 average).

2010 was hot. According to the Japan Meteorological Organisation (JMO) it was the second warmest year on record since 1891, when comprehensive data first started being kept.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

An Australian scientist has warned against misinterpreting the cold spells in Europe and North America and the heavy rains and flooding in Australia as climate change not occurring. Barrie Hunt, an Honorary Research Fellow with the CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, said that seasonal cold spells will still be expected under enhanced greenhouse conditions and that the long term trend is that the global climate is warming.

“Despite 2010 being a very warm year globally, the severity of the 2009-2010 northern winter and a wetter and cooler Australia in 2010 relative to the past few years have been misinterpreted by some to imply that climate change is not occurring,” said Mr Hunt.

“Recent wet conditions in eastern Australia mainly reflect short-term climate variability and weather events, not longer-term climate change trends. Conclusions that climate is not changing are based on a misunderstanding of the roles of climatic change caused by increasing greenhouse gases and climatic variability due to natural processes in the climatic system."

Monday, December 20, 2010

Two activists who unfurled a banner off the roof of the Quennsland Parliament House opposing coal seam gas are to appear in Brisbane Magistrate's Court today (December 20). Dr Bradley Smith (27) and Dhruva Horsfall (21), from Friends of the Earth were able to access the roof and unfurl a banner from the Parliament House facade that said "Don't undermine our farms" to the cheers of Farmers and conservations protesting against new coal mines and Coal Seam Gas expansion.

Smith and Horsfall are both charged with engaging in an unregulated high-risk activity and failure to comply with the direction of the speaker of the house and face up to $6000 in fines or 1 year imprisonment.

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About Me

Time to leap out of the slowly boiling pot of earth's warming climate
into action on climate mitigation and adaption.
I don't want my children to ask why I didn't act after reading the
scientific reports of climate risks. I write on the
effects of human induced climate change, sea level rise, ocean
acidification, biodiversity loss, environmental and social impacts of
global warming, and climate protests from a Melbourne Citizen
Journalist.

A member of environmental NGOs and community groups for 30 years in Australia, currently living in Melbourne. I have been a Citizen journalist for the Indymedia network in Australia and worldwide from 2000, as an editor and contributor with Australia Indymedia and the global features collective. Since 2013 I have contributed many stories to Margot Kingston's citizen journalism website: nofibs.com.au. (See my article archive) I also post photoessays to Flickr and videos to Youtube and edit wikipedia as user Tirin. My website is takver.com where I can be contacted through the feedback form, the most reliable way to contact me. I can also be contacted through facebook and on twitter as @takvera.